Breaking Barriers

This memoir describes how Freddie Pitcher made history in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by becoming the first Black elected to judgeships at three different levels of the court system. Pitcher recounts his early years in Valley Park-a semi-rural and segregated community-revealing that one of his cousins, a civil rights attorney, served as his role model and inspired him to become both a lawyer and change agent. He depicts what it was like to grow up in the segregated South and how the pangs of racial discrimination fueled his drive to challenge the norms of the Baton Rouge judiciary later in life. Pitcher discusses how he systematically forged together Black political organizations, the Black church community, and a group of white attorneys into a campaign coalition that ultimately helped him overcome the racial barriers that prevented Blacks from ascending to the judiciary in Baton Rouge. He details the strategy used to win seats on both the Baton Rouge City and the 19th Judicial District courts when many said a Black could not win a city- or parish-wide election. He later describes many of the challenges he faced as the first and only Black judge in Baton Rouge while highlighting some of the notable cases he tried and sharing his beliefs about judging and the judicial process. Pitcher's story will provide readers with an informative, educational, and inspirational perspective about how Blacks strove and persevered in their efforts to overcome the many roadblocks to their full participation in the political process related to the judiciary--